Of Life and Love

When all else fails, call the Professor of Love. Irving Singer '48, professor in the Philosophy and Linguistics Department at MIT, is academia's love czar, having published numerous books concerning the history and nature of love: love in the operas of Mozart and Beethoven, the pursuit of love, and human sexuality. Since 1958, Professor Singer has been lecturing at MIT on the philosophy of love.

According to Singer, "all of my books are a reflection of what I have learned from my failures and partial successes."

In the 1950s, Singer discovered that there was simply no philosophy concerning the modern conception of love; instead, there was just a span of historical perspectives beginning with the ideas of Plato to the "anti-romantic romantics," Kirekegard and Nietzche.

"Everyone told me it would ruin my career," he recalls. Singer began to formulate his own ideas on the philosophy of love: "I was very annoyed with it at first because I was writing analytically, but through the history of the philosophy, I was developing my own ideas." Singer's philosophy of love provides no easy answers. His Pursuit of Love offers neither hints towards a successful love life nor a methodology for amorous involvement.

Singer's recent work has gone beyond the idea of love to question the meaning in life, a subject he holds "closer to [his] heart."

In fact, nowadays, the romance and contrived nature of Valentine's Day, do not strike his immediate interest. Dr. Love, meet Dr. Life.